Telecommunication networks provide for the transmission of information across some distance through terrestrial, wireless or satellite communication networks. Such communications may involve voice, data or multimedia information, among others. In addition, telecommunication networks often offer features and/or services to the customers of the network that provide flexible and varied ways in which the communications are transmitted over the network. For example, some telecommunication networks provide a conferencing feature that allows several users of the network to communicate at once, rather than a simple person-to-person communication. The number of participants to a conference communication may range from a few users to several hundred users communicating on the same telephonic and/or data call.
Typically, conferencing communications require participants to the conference to place a telephonic call to a dedicated conferencing number. Some networks also require the participants to enter a conference call access code into the keypad of a telephonic device. The conferencing number and access code are then utilized by the telecommunications network to connect that participant to a conferencing bridge device. In still other embodiments, the conferencing bridge may request a second identification code that indicates the participant is a chairperson for the conference. In general, a conferencing bridge is a telecommunications device that hosts the participants of a conferencing communication such that the participants can attend the collaboration. Thus, the network typically receives the dialed number and conference code from each participant and connects the participant to the conferencing bridge. Once connected to the conference bridge, the participant may take part in the conferencing communication. A chairperson to the collaboration conference may have certain additional features for the conference, such as the ability to mute participants, hang-up on participants, or to control aspects of an associated web conference.